A Gantt chart is a special type of bar chart, in which each in­di­vid­ual bar is arranged along a timeline to visualize when tasks should begin and how long they should last for. Project managers tend to use these types of bar charts named after me­chan­i­cal engineer Henry Gantt to organize processes and steps in a project. Using a Gantt chart, the project manager gains a full overview of all out­stand­ing tasks: who’s re­spon­si­ble for which as­sign­ment, when in­di­vid­ual duties should begin, and the time frame project members have been assigned to finish their work.

Spread­sheet programs such as Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets allow users to create their own Gantt charts in just a few simple steps. The special advantage of Google Gantt charts is that they are ac­ces­si­ble anywhere and can be shared among project teams with ease. Part of the Google Workspace by Google, Sheets is a cloud-based tool ac­ces­si­ble by multiple team members at the same time to modify in real-time.

When you and your team are col­lab­o­rat­ing on a project, it makes sense to utilize col­lab­o­ra­tive tools to keep members up to date on current processes. In the following, we’ll explain how you can create your own Gantt charts with Google Sheets step by step.

Creating Google Gantt charts step by step

Using Google Docs to create Gantt charts is achiev­able in just a few simple steps. Here’s how to do it.

1. Create a new project spread­sheet which should include a column that explains the task (“Task”) and one column con­tain­ing the “Start Date” and another the “End Date.” To assign re­spon­si­bil­i­ties you could add a fourth column with a name of the person re­spon­si­ble for a certain task.

Image: Google Sheets with example project worksheet
The example project table includes the task and its assigned start and end date.

2. Copy the header of the project table and insert it where you want to insert the Gantt chart later. The header should now include a column entitled “Duration” instead of “End Date” and we’re using “Day” instead of the “Start Date.” Now, copy the de­scrip­tions of the in­di­vid­ual tasks.

Image: Google Sheets Gantt chart foundation
Where you’ve inserted a copy of your project table, a Gantt chart will be embedded later.

3. Within the “Day” column of your copied table, enter the formula to calculate the days between tasks, i.e. the dif­fer­ence between a task and the very first task. In the example below, the formula would be “=int(B3)-int($B$3)”. The start date of the first task is contained in cell B3 in the example below. However, this may differ depending on the arrange­ment in your spread­sheet.

Image: Inserted formula in Google Sheets
The dif­fer­ence between the start date of a task and the start date of the very first task logically is “0” in this case.

4. Click on the small blue square in the bottom right corner of the cell used to calculate the dif­fer­ence between the start date of a task and the very first task and pull it down across all other cells up to the final cell con­tain­ing a task. Doing so will copy the formula across all other cells au­to­mat­i­cal­ly. Google Sheets then auto-cal­cu­lates the values across the in­di­vid­ual cells.

Image: Automatically calculate days in a Google spreadsheet
The formula used pre­vi­ous­ly is au­to­mat­i­cal­ly trans­ferred to all selected cells and Google Sheets auto-cal­cu­lates the values for each in­di­vid­ual cell.

5. Below the cell con­tain­ing the Duration header, enter the formula to calculate how much time should be spent per­form­ing each task. The formula subtracts the value of the start date of the very first task from the end date of each in­di­vid­ual task. The formula in this example would be: “=(int(C3)-int($B$3))-(int(B3)-int$B$3”.

Image: Google Sheets: formula for task duration
Hit “Enter” to calculate the results. The cells will show how many days should be spent on each task.

6. Hold down the small blue square in the cell and pull it across the remaining cells. The formula is now being copied across the remainder of the tasks and the duration for each task is au­to­mat­i­cal­ly cal­cu­lat­ed.

Image: Google Sheets: values for project duration
By pulling the formula from cell C13 into the suc­ceed­ing cells, the duration of the in­di­vid­ual tasks are au­to­mat­i­cal­ly cal­cu­lat­ed.

7. Now, highlight the whole table of cal­cu­lat­ed dates and select “Insert” from the Google Sheets main panel. Select “Chart” from the panel overview.

Image: Google Sheets menu “Insert”
The “Chart” option under “Insert” will au­to­mat­i­cal­ly insert a chart of the cal­cu­lat­ed values.

8. On the right side, a chart editor menu will pop up. If this doesn’t open au­to­mat­i­cal­ly, select the Gantt style from the “Chart style” menu option to create your Google Gantt chart. Click on one of the blue bars to access the chart editor for all bars rep­re­sent­ing “Start date.” Under “Format,” choose “Color” and “None.”

Image: Gantt chart with Google Sheets
The finished Gantt chart shows when in­di­vid­ual tasks begin, overlap, and their temporal relation to one another.

You can now per­son­al­ize your Gantt chart and make ad­di­tion­al ad­just­ments. For example, you could modify the title of the chart, scale its axes or select different colors for in­di­vid­ual bars.

Tip

If you prefer to work with Microsoft Office, here’s the good news: Microsoft offers similar options to Google Sheets to create many different types of charts. Simply use Excel to create Gantt charts.

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